Bringing It Home

The Mart’s DreamHome is packed with ideas

When gray paint is good, it's great. When it's wrong, it's glum or oppressive or any number of adjectives that you didn't have in mind when you picked that once-alluring shade of "Sudden Fog."

In the Merchandise Mart?s 2012 DreamHome--a collection of nine rooms each outfitted by a different Chicago designer, opening tomorrow on the first floor of the Mart--we saw a shade of gray that?s worth remembering. (Hint: See the living room by RJA Design.)

This year?s DreamHome is a breed apart from its earlier incarnations; the layout of the project in the Mart?s north lobby has been reconfigured, and the 2012 home includes a new game room (Gray & Walter). Participating designers view the project as a chance to exercise creative carte blanche, so rather than touring the rooms with an eye toward replication, we suggest honing in on an idea here, an idea there--then making it your own.

For instance: We want that teal wallpaper. Wouldn?t it look lovely in a breakfast nook?